Posts Tagged ‘Godus’

When Peter Molyneux agreed to speak to me, I knew the interview was going to be tense. I knew that an article we’d posted on Monday, asking what was going on with the development of Godus, had kicked up an enormous storm for 22cans and its boss, with the rest of the gaming press picking up and running with it. So I assumed, when he agreed to chat, he knew that it wasn’t going to be a smooth ride. I wanted to get to the root of so much that now seems to form the reputation of the developer, the outlandish promises that so often aren’t kept, the ridiculous time-frames claimed, and the often disappointing or lacklustre results. I especially wanted to do this now that the people funding such things aren’t deep-pocketed publishers, but the players themselves. I wasn’t expecting it to take us in the direction of Molyneux’s declaring that I was “driving him out of the games industry”.

We spoke on the phone on Wednesday evening, Molyneux speaking from the Guildford offices of his studio, 22cans. Sounding stressed, but composed, Molyneux asked how I’d like to begin, whether I had questions, or should I just let him talk. I told him I had questions, many questions, and so we began.

Eurogamer have published a really superb article in which they speak to Bryan Henderson, the “winner” of Curiosity, who was promised a life-changing prize. That prize turned out to be the role of “God of Gods” in the multiplayer version of Godus, and a share of the money made by the game. Well, a share of the money made by the multiplayer bit of the game, which was always supposed to be part of the game. But apparently, because it’s still not in there two years on, means he doesn’t get anything. Nothing at all. Not even emails for month after month, according to Wesley Yin-Poole’s heartbreaking interview with the 21 year old.

They then go on to put this to Molyneux himself, hours after we’d published our article that revealed the depth of mess that Godus is currently in. Along with the predictable gush of apologies, Molyneux also makes some odd claims that entirely contradict a video he’d recorded the same day.

Yesterday we reported on the giant mess that 22cans’ Godus appears to be in. After a lead developer on the project stated that Kickstarter goals will likely not be met, and woefully dissatisfied backers lamented the lack of progress in the PC version, it appears some damage limitation is now in effect. A new video from the studio attempts to put minds at rest, while mostly achieving the effect that it was written by Ricky Gervais.

Hey, remember Godus?! It was successfully Kickstarted in 2012, despite launching with no video at all, as the name of “Peter Molyneux” still carried enough currency to raise over half a million pounds for his return to the god game genre. Just over two years have gone by, and mobile free-to-play versions of the game launched last year, but what state is the PC development in now? Molyneux has announced that he’s now working on a new project, a mobile thing called The Trial, suggesting Godus is no longer his focus. And the team currently working on the game have recently acknowledged that they, “simply can’t see us delivering all the features promised on the kickstarter page.” Uh oh.

Peter Molyneux and 22 Cans’ intended Populous heir Godus is the most miserable gaming experience I’ve had in many a year. It was so crushingly short on joy and cleverness, it seemed like a tech demo made without a design, it seemed to believe Farmville was gaming’s future, it was a betrayal of its own heritage, and it was an insult to all that had been promised. I struggled to find anything to convince me that it existed for any reason beyond making money. As an angry young man, I loathed games often. These days, I simply feel sadness and tiredness when I play a game I don’t enjoy. But Godus I loathed, and completely so. There should be no surprise, by now, at unmet promises, but the sheer scale of the oath-breaking here was breathtaking.

Now there is Godus 2.0. There are apologies. There are promises. There is talk of it being an almost ground-up rethink. It may very well be true, and certainly an attempt at salvage on this scale is to be admired. But we have been fooled so very many times before.Read the rest of this entry »

It is 1991. I am eagerly clicking my way into my copy of Populous II, recently purchased from WHSmith (can you imagine!) and Uncle John is watching over my shoulder. He observes for a while, and then says “just looks like a lot of clicking to me.” It is, I say, but there’s something going on here, a struggle, a strategy.

It is 2013. I am eagerly clicking my way into my copy of Godus, recently purchased from Steam, and the internet is watching over my shoulder. It observes for a while and then comments “lol, just looks like a lot of clicking to me.” It is, I say, but there’s something going on here. Isn’t there? This time I am not so sure.

Peter Molyneux is up to his old tricks again, for better or worse. He’s gone gaga for Godus, and he wants the world to hear all about it. And who knows? Maybe this time – finally, after years of squandering his legendary status on unfulfilled promises and mediocre games – he’s onto something. Godus certainly sounds fascinating, with Molyneux describing it as a massively polytheistic EVE-Online-inspired social experiment that seems destined for player-driven chaos. But there are still far too many question marks, with the Curiosity-born god of gods and an offline single-player story being the biggest. So I took my promise-weary, cynical heart to Molyneux, and here’s how he replied.

True fact: pretty much all I do is interviewPeterMolyneux. I try to do it as much as possible, because that’s the only time Jim lets me out of my box. Coincidentally, Molyneux knows a thing or two about boxes. His most recent one, Curiosity, erupted into a poof cloud of half-truths and forgotten promises, but now he’s sweeping them away to reveal a god game that might just be worth getting excited over. Admittedly, I say this with the caveat that Molyneux’s swung pretty wide of the mark in recent years, so take his promises to heart with a hefty swill of caution.

That said, he describes Godus as an insanely ambitious massively multiplayer EVE-Online-inspired god game social experiment – a “reinvention” of the genre if ever there was one. Head below for details on multiplayer, crazy god wars, why Curiosity was instrumental in reaching this point, the lessons Molyneux’s taking from EVE’s successes and failures, and tons more.

The Godus beta will appear for us mortals not in a burning bush, but on Steam. Molyneux and friends’ “regenesis” of the god game will appear on September 13th, for $19.99, £14.99 or €18.99. Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on it, if just to keep the critical demon which feeds on my soul fed and warm.

Peter Molyneux likes to say things – perhaps a little too much, if a few forgotten promises pertaining to Curiosity and GODUS are any indication. Yesterday, he and I discussed Curiosity’s aftermath, what it means for GODUS, and why things like a PC version of the almighty floating cubolith never surfaced. Today, we continue that discussion with what exactly the sudden (and very unexpected) addition of a publisher to GODUS’ mobile arm means for everyone else, whether or not the game will employ free-to-play and/or microtransactions, and where all of this leaves 22Cans’ much-ballyhooed 22 experiments. It’s all after the break.

Most cubes contain air, sugar, or tiny men named Rubik. Not Peter Molyneux’s, though. Instead, Molyneux himself emerged from the cuboid cocoon with promises of virtual immortality. Bryan Henderson from Edinburgh, Scotland will soon be godding at an eons-old level even though he’s just 18. For some, though, that prize rang hollow. “All that tapping,” many cried, “for the sole purpose of advertising 22Cans’ next game?” And what would’ve happened if GODUS‘ Kickstarter didn’t succeed in the first place? Would the prize have been something else entirely? Also, what does cell phone cube tapping have to do with a primarily PC god game at all, and why weren’t we able to at least participate in the tapping on PC? Molyneux initially promised it, after all. There are, in other words, some things to answer for. I got in touch with Molyneux to ask about all the rather questionable changes of plan, and also how all the “god of gods” stuff will affect GODUS for everyone else. Here’s the first part of our chat.

Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity is officially, incontrovertibly over. A young man by the name of Bryan Henderson from Edinburgh, Scotland cracked the not-quite-infinite cuboid egg, and out oozed godhood. Well, OK, virtual godhood in 22Cans’ upcoming GODUS – which has drawn some rather, er, mixed reactions from mere mortals. I got in touch with Peter Molyneux to talk about that, potential dishonesty, how Henderson’s “god of gods” role will function, and why a mobile contest decided a crucial feature for a PC game, and he revealed a particularly interesting nugget: godhood and all it entails (including a cut of GODUS’ eventual earnings) has an expiration date. After that, the throne will be up for grabs, but you’ll need a lot more than luck and tap-cracked fingertips to claim it.

UPDATE: We’ve spoken to 22Cans, and have some answers to the questions people are asking about the confusing new news.

Eyebrows to the top half of your forehead – it’s concerned speculation time. There’s been an odd announcement from Peter Molyneux and 22Cans, about their Kickstartered GODUS. In a video oddly aimed at backers only, but available on Youtube (and below), Molyneux has announced a publishing partnership with mobile moneymakers DeNA, for the mobile version of the game. Not so odd? Well, there are two factors here. Firstly, there’s absolutely no mention of the PC version at all, and a related press release refers to GODUS as “a new type of game for mobile devices”. And secondly, DeNA specialises in F2P mobile games with micropayments.